Teams focus on polishing relays for stretch run

By Mike Brohard Sports Editor

Posted:
04/26/2013 09:45:28 PM MDT

Dylan Miller
(
Steve Stoner
)

FORT COLLINS -- Three weeks from now, the best track and field athletes in Colorado will be a day away from closing out the season, leaving them and their coaches with a deadline to work on some of the finer details of being prepared.

The past two weeks of being cooped up because of the poor weather hasn't helped the process, but all of them feel confident there is still ample time and nobody is in panic mode. Still, with French Field being sun-drenched (though sometimes windy) on Friday afternoon, it provided the perfect opportunity to work on putting together some quality efforts.

Loveland and Mountain View were both in attendance, and coming off Wednesday's city meet, Indians coach Paul Quere looked at the LoboCat Invitational as a chance to get in a good workout, with a few caveats. His counterpart at Mountain View, Kevin Clark, was very much in the same frame of mind, though he was paying particularly close attention to his girls' relay teams.

Quere walked away with his interest piqued as both the boy's sprint medley and 400 relay teams walked away victorious at the meet. Trevin Long led off both teams and Dylan Miller took the anchor legs, while John Freismuth was also on hand for strong legs. While Joe Etling ran on the medley team that was just .09 off the school mark, freshman Owen Raisch took the third leg on the 400 squad, putting Miller in place to run down the lead teams and out-lean them for the win.

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Quere wanted to give the medley team a chance for the school mark, but for the most part, the rest of the day was mostly for work. Still, he saw the competitive nature of his athletes come out, and that excited him. Miller was given the option to skip the 200, but the chance to compete is hard to pass up, which he showed at the end of the 400 relay. It was a finish fueled in part by missing the record earlier in the day.

"It is pretty frustrating just to know that you were that close, one step away," Miller said. "As you could see from the 4x1, that distance is about what it would have taken to beat that. At the same time, just knowing you were that close I think was kind of my motivation going into the rest of the day."

Etling would later produce a title of his own, running a 40.47 in the 300 hurdles, a time that will move him into the top five of the state rankings, results that were part of Quere's upbeat nature.

"The things we came to look at, the 4x1 boys -- they won. The medley boys -- they won. And Joe won, and I believe that was the conference champion from last year he beat at the tape," Quere said. "He's right there. He's been committed to track for three months now. He's a great kid, and he's making our team a lot better."

Andrea Baumann
(
Steve Stoner
)

What Clark was eyeing most was the 400, 800 and 1,600 relay teams for his girls, and all came through with season best times, the 1,600 squad posting the second-best mark in 4A this year. While the Lions have all the right pieces in place, working on exchanges are paramount from here on out, and the day gave them all a better idea of what is working and what needs work.

Andrea Baumann will be a fixture in the relays, and she likes the way the Mountain Lions progressed throughout the day and how they work together.

"I feel really good about where we're at right now, especially considering we had like a week inside of practice," Baumann said. "I think we're where we should be. We have the people we want to have, it's just improving each time. Everybody is trying to better their time every meet. Handoffs are huge, and that's why every meet we run the 4x1 we try to better our handoffs, because a lot of times that's what it comes down to."

Riley Cooney, who ran the anchor leg of 1,600 relay, was coming off a win in the 800 with a personal-record time of 2:18.51. Overall, Clark came away seeing what he wanted to from his team in the short turnaround.

"I mean, for us it was more about how we responded after a good workday on Wednesday," he said. "Really, it was to see how we could come back. I was impressed with everybody."

Though the posed a quick turnaround, the locals still put up some quality efforts with tired bodies. In a rare twist, the javelin was in play on the day, and Loveland may want to push for it to become a state event. Taryn Archuleta won the girl's event with a toss of 94-3, with teammate Tatianna Eliazada taking fifth, matching her finish in the discus. Josh Ouimet was second on the boy's side of things.

Loveland's point totals were aided by Kailie Hartman taking third in the 1,600 and Taylor Buschy's fifth in the 200.

Mountain View had another individual champion as Tyler Sipes threw 152 feet, 3 inches in the discus. Josh Sandin added a third in the triple jump, as did freshman Ramon Salgado in the pole vault, improving 11 inches from two days prior. Zach Mehn had a pair of two-six finishes in the 100 and 400. Sisters Abby and Sammi Watson finished fourth and sixth, respectively, in the triple jump.

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